when cycling a tank should I do water changes.

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spaz0177

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 13, 2007
Messages
28
I have a 120 gallon reef taking. Cycling with live rock. How often or ever should I do water changes when cycling?
 
WELCOME TO AA!

Please do not cycle your tank with live animals.

Assuming you are not cycling with live animals, you don't need to do a PWC until your ammonia and nitrItes reach 0 and your nitrAtes spike.
 
My local fish store advised me to add 8 damsel. after reading the forum on topic, it is realized that not only was it a bad mistake but I will never trust those boneheads again. I am having problems catching them. because there are fish in there should i do water changes.
 
It is probably best to really take out the rock and catch and return them, otherwise they tend to become agressive and will limit your new fish selections. On another note, they will be hard to catch once you have your tank cycled and the aquascape how you like it. You will end up having to take out the rock to get to them, anyway.
Here is a great article on the Fishless Cycle http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15.
 
I guess you realize now that your LFS is only out to make money. Any decision he can make that will profit him he will do. We dont stand to make anything off of you so ask away and we will help you along. Normally I would say dont do a cycle but with fish in there I would do some PWC`s. If not alot of them will die. This will of course extend your cycle time. Your LFS does not care if they die but you and me should. I would also suggest you find another LFS. Any questions just ask.
 
I would recommend that before you do any water changes, get an ammonia test kit. Test for ammonia. If ammonia is above about .1 ppm, you should probably do a 20% water change. If it is way above .1 ppm, you should do as big a water change as is necessary to get it under .1 ppm. Of course you shouldn't do more than about 30% at once. So if you are at .2, you should change out about 60 % of the water, but over 3 20% water changes. This will allow you to bring the ammonia down without stressing the fish more than they are being stressed already.

The reason I think you should test is that your aquarium is large, and you have live rock. Sometimes you won't see ammonia get very high in situations such as yours.
 
I agree, can you post your test results? With that amount of CURED LR, you may not experience much of a cycle.
 
Speaking from expierence of having to catch 2 damsels you will want to get those guys out of there before you have coral and other critters in the tank. I had to take every thing out of my tank (of course I moved the tank a bit in the process..you know kill 2 with 1) to catch those little devils. I don't recomend doing that after you have your tank cycled and stocked!
 
Man, Damsels get such a bad rap ...

Depending on the condition of the LR, cure/uncured, you might not see a huge ammonia spike but you could also see a hellacious one. Definately test for ammonia and adjust you water changes accordingly.

I don't advocate using damsels to cycle but when I started out in the hobby 11 yrs ago, that was all anyone did. I can't imagine adding 8 damsels though. Might be better to remove them now vs later. I have 2 in my tank and I like them. Would not want 8 though.
 
I don't think that all damsels are bad..I just got unlucky with the 3 I had. The only one I really liked and caused me no problems at all decided to take a giant leap for fish kind.
 
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